Artist's 'lost' erotic drawings worth 2m discovered [View all]

[Duncan Grant]

(No more hidden histories, please.)

Duncan Grant: Artist's 'lost' erotic drawings worth £2m discovered

Hundreds of explicit drawings by Duncan Grant, one of Britain's most famous mid-20th Century painters, have been found under a bed. "Everybody thought they had been destroyed," said Darren Clarke, head of collections at Charleston, the Sussex farmhouse where Grant lived and worked. In fact, the collection of mostly male sexual encounters was passed from lover to lover, friend to friend, in secret. The 422 works on paper are "a revelation", Dr Clarke said.

..."That is the fate of a lot of queer history," said Dr Clarke. "Relatives have destroyed it to protect the reputations of the person who has died or the family as a whole." However, the truth was they were rescued and eventually passed to theatre designer Norman Coates 11 years ago. And where did he keep them? "Under my bed," he said. "It's rather appropriate isn't it?"